Statistically Speaking Baseball and Spring are Popping Up

Waa! I had my truck washed Tuesday so of course it rained yesterday and it’s raining again today. If I kept statistics religiously like they do in baseball, I could have predicted the rain. Good thing I mowed the lawn while the sun was out. Now if old Mr. Sol would just come out again for a while so I could take Sam for his walk . . .

Spring definitely is arriving in full force. It may not be the official opening day of spring (although it’s time for baseball), but it’s here. The weather people are predicting a somewhat drier year – even drier than last year, which was amazing for the number of sunny days we enjoyed. Boy, we did enjoy those sunny days.

Get out the rye bread and mustard Grandma!

So, the daffodils and crocus and forsythia are all blooming. The flowering trees are just about to pop out with blossoms. The robins and other birds are singing and foraging for food. And baseball spring training has started. Sam and I wonder, as does almost every other sports fan hereabouts, if the Seattle Mariners are going to make it to the World Series this year.

The Sports Talk radio people keep bringing so-called experts on air to predict the Mariners’ chances this year. To a man (and woman?) they say the Mariners should at least make the playoffs – the team looks real good on paper. Given certain statistics and the fact the Mariners just missed making the playoffs by one game last year, their addition of power hitter Nelson Cruz to their lineup has everybody all atwitter.

Of course Sam and I are somewhat skeptical. Every year we hear, “this could be the year,” and it isn’t. The Mariners are in a very tough division with the Los Angeles Angels, a perennial powerhouse, the Oakland Athletics and the Texas Rangers, all hard to beat. The Mariners won 87 games last year, but they didn’t make the playoffs. They won 90-some games a few years ago, but didn’t make the playoffs. They’ve even won 116 games (out of 162) in a season and still haven’t made it to the World Series. So, one does not get one’s hopes up too much.

One off the things I keep hearing on ESPN Sports Talk Radio is this advertisement for testosterone treatment. That goes along with baseball, right? Never mind that the players aren’t supposed to use those sort of substances, we fans are allowed to, right? The advertisement keeps telling me that statistically speaking, men lose about three percent of their testosterone every year after they reach the age of thirty. Unfortunately for me, admittedly no great mathematician, a three percent loss of testosterone every year after thirty would mean I now have lost 120%. Aw crap!

I did not fare well in statistics class in college. The important thing I learned in that class was that statistics could be manipulated to “prove” pretty much anything you wanted to prove. So, here’s the deal – I choose to believe statistics that say the Mariners will make the playoffs well before I run out of testosterone. Put that in your scoring book! It looks real good on paper.